Manila: Selling pressures partly due to the cut in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' (BSP) key rates during the day resulted in a decline in the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) Thursday, but the peso kept its footing against the US dollar. The main stocks gauge shed 1.33 percent to 6,190.19 points, and the All Shares by 0.75 percent to 3,703.07 points.

According to Philippines News Agency, most of the sectoral gauges also ended in the red, led by Financials, which dipped 2.41 percent. It was trailed by Property, 1.45 percent; Services, 1 percent; Holding Firms, 0.67 percent; and Industrial, 0.24 percent. Only the Mining and Oil index gained during the day after rising 0.45 percent. Volume reached 953.32 million shares, amounting to PHP7 billion. It is a balance between advancers and decliners at 99 each, while 48 shares were unchanged.

Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales, said 'the market faced some selling pressure.' This was after the BSP Monetary Board decided to slash the central bank's key rates by 25 percent, bringing the total cuts so far this year to 75 basis points. This announcement was made towards the end of the day's trading, deviating from the previous policy of the central bank to announce it after the trading session. The rate reduction was widely expected by the market.

'But now, attention shifts to how investors will react to the BSP's 25 bps rate cut and its implications for equity prices, especially as yields continue to decline while the inflation outlook of the central bank remains steady at 1.7 percent by year-end,' Limlingan said. Amid this turnout, the local currency was able to close the day little changed against the US dollar at 57.12 from its 57.16 close on Wednesday. It opened the day sideways at 57.05, and traded between 57.17 and 56.93. The day's average stood at 57.08. Volume reached USD1.86 billion, lower than the previous session's USD1.9 billion.